Blunderwall

Originally published in Emancipation & Liberation Issue 8, Autumn 2004. This wall between us slowly grows slinking along the dusty earth like some snake in the desert sands Once in Jericho it fell down by those who now do the building the heirs of the trumpet blowers Once Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall,…

Man’s Best Friend?

This experience comes from leafleting during a council by-election in the Lochee ward in Dundee, but I imagine that what is described in this little ditty is transferable to anywhere that dogs lurk unseen, waiting to give their canine judgement on political activists of any persuasion. For we, who politics inspire, There is a time…

Democracy 2

Review: Alan Graham Keynesian Economy Simulator Format: PC Publisher: Positech Developer: Cliff Harris (probably in his bedroom) Price: £15.28 Bourgeois Democracy: Another simulation Following on from the original Democracy, Clif Harris has released a sequel: imaginatively titled Democracy 2. The game is a simulation of politics. You have been elected President of X country and…

Punk, Politics and Perdition

Mary McGregor interviews communist and actor, Tam Dean Burn. Tam Dean Burn is the most respected political actor in Scotland today. He was born in Leith and grew up in Clermiston, a west Edinburgh housing estate. He went to Queen Margaret College to study acting at a time when working class men were encouraged to…

The Defiance Of Science

Rod MacGregor looks at science, secularism and the role of religion In his book about oil depletion, Half Gone, Jeremy Leggett, one-time oil company high flier and former chief scientist with Greenpeace, tells of a particularly bizarre conversation he had with a lobbyist from the Ford Motor Company at a conference on climate change. The…

Secularism, Socialism and Religion

Bob Goupillot outlines a Marxist approach to religion A Marxist understanding of religion Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is…

Peak Oil, Oil Depletion, & Alternative Energies

Rod Macgregor examines the oil depletion debate, its consequences for the world economy and a socialist response Peak Oil & oil depletion A debate is currently raging among oil professionals, and it splits into two camps. This debate focuses on a day called Peak Oil, the day in the future when oil production reaches an…

Computer Game -Democracy

Keynesian Economy Simulator Format: PC Publisher: Positech Developer: Clif Harris (probably in his bedroom) Price: $19.95+VAT (Approx. £13 – £14) Reviewed by Alan Graham (Bourgeois) Democracy: the game I had heard about this game and was intrigued, so when I saw the demo on a magazine I installed it immediately. Two hours later I shelled…